Quote:
"Reading the Irish landscape", the book by Michael Ryan and the late Frank Mitchell, states the following on the subject.
"Even allowing for what may have been destroyed, the cemeteries so far documented do not account for the whole population, and other forms of burial or disposal were practised which left little or no trace on the landscape....What we have in the burial record therefore, represents only a tiny fragment of the whole picture." (1986, Mitchell and Ryan.)

First of all I have to say I am probably the least qualified person posting here to comment on you impressive paper.
It does seem linked to burials doesn't it and indicates that the south east of Ireland was quite densely populated - which would tie in with some of the recent archaeological finds on the west coast of Wales pointing to busy trade links across the Irish Sea.

It often occurs to me (perhaps because I live near a cemetery) that if we could fast forward a couple of thousand years our cemeteries and churchyards will be of great interest to the people looking at them. And because many of us opt for cremation with no memorial stone there will be big gaps in assessing populations (that's assuming the internet has a limited life span and our books don't survive).